Skios

Dr. Norman Wilfred has flown to Skios to give a distinguished speech to a group of rich academics at the Toppler Foundation. Due to an unfortunate string of coincidences, he is whisked off to a villa while a con artist, Oliver Fox, takes his place at the Toppler gathering. At first blush, this may seem like to be only a farcical comedy of errors. Fun is poked at the distinguished empty-headedness of academia, at silly assumptions people make when they don't have all the information (which, of course, they never do), and at the openness of people to accept whatever is said--as long as it is said by a charismatic person. However, I can see why this book was chosen for the Booker longlist--upon a more careful reading this book has a much show more deeper undercurrent. It asks questions about identity and about chance Eureka! moments. I found the ease with with Oliver Fox moved into Norman Wilfred's life almost believable because that IS how academia works sometimes. Sometimes, it IS more about how charming you are than about what's actually coming out of your mouth. Sometimes it IS more about your name and about who people think you are than about who you ACTUALLY are. I understand that this book isn't for everybody...but I'm a person who doesn't generally read farcical novels, and I enjoyed this one immensely. show less

Ach war das schön! Endlich mal wieder eine Komödie im besten Sinne des Wortes. Kein lauter Schenkelklopfer, eher eine 'Schmunzelgeschichte' da man das Grinsen nicht wieder wegbekommt, bevor man das Buch aus der Hand legt.
Dr. Norman Wilfred, ein berühmter Wissenschaftler, reist auf die kleine griechische Insel Skios, um dort bei der Fred-Toppler-Stiftung (die die zivilisierten Werte fördert, was immer die auch sein mögen) einen Vortrag zu halten - der Höhepunkt der jährlichen Hausparty. Gleichzeitig erreicht auch Oliver Fox die Insel, ein charmanter Hochstapler, der nichts anderes macht, als der zu sein, den sich andere wünschen. Dies führt zwangsläufig zu diversen Ärgernissen, wenn sich offenbart, dass er doch nur - Oliver show more Fox ist. Auf Skios ist er nun Dr. Norman Wilfred und wird freudig von Nikki, der rechten Hand der Vorsitzenden der Fred-Toppler-Stiftung, in Empfang genommen, ebenso wie von allen anderen Gästen. Währenddessen landet der echte Dr. Norman Wilfred in der Pampa, wenngleich in äußerst luxeriöser Umgebung.
Wie sich nun ein Missverständnis ans andere reiht, Koffer vertauscht werden und wieder zurück vertauscht, Männer in fremden Schlafzimmern landen und Frauen Nächte im Bad verbringen, drei Frauen hinter einem Mann her sind und hinter einem anderen keine einzige, ist einfach ein köstlicher Spaß. Zudem wirft der Autor einen äußerst genauen wie auch ironischen Blick auf die vermutlich(?) typischen Anwesenden einer solchen Veranstaltung - High Society, der es ums Sehen und Gesehenwerden geht, während gleichzeitig legale, halblegale und illegale Geschäfte getätigt werden. Der Einzige, der tatsächlich versteht, worum es bei dem Vortrag gehen soll, wird schlicht mundtot gemacht und eher als Spielverderber betrachtet.
Eine wirklich schöne Lektüre, die einem einige äußerst vergnügliche Stunden bereitet. show less

A witty, clever farce. Frayn is very skillful in his use of comedy here, and he takes his time building up the characters so that—by the time one is midway through the novel—his continued introductions and complications are just uproariously fantastical and often laugh-out-loud hysterical.

Frayn's use of dialogue is very smart: I was often reminded of reading a script at times, something that works quite well for the more darkly humorous episodes in Skios as one can almost see this enacted as if on stage. The pacing and the quick-wittedness all factor into the success of this very modern and very British cage aux folles. It was only after finishing the novel that I discovered Frayn wrote the play Noises Off, and the similarity is show more definitely there.

Skios is a novel where no one knows who they are; no one knows where they are; and no one knows who or where anyone else is. Some characters fall into multiple categories of confusion, while others emphasize the novel's interest in cultural and linguistic dislocation (e.g., a very funny receptionist; two twin taxi drivers). Where Frayn also excels is in his covert criticism of modern technology: in a world where smart phones exist, even on the island of Skios these smart phones render their users far from smart and, increasingly, become the culprits of mistaken identity, missed opportunities, and failed connections.

A surprising title to have been long listed for the Booker, especially given the more "high brow" literary titles that usually populate the lists each year. This is certainly not to say that Frayn is not a literary writer; indeed, the comparisons to David Lodge's academic satires (e.g., Changing Places, Small World) are not unfounded, but Frayn has a humor all his own. Could a farce about our modern world win the prize this year? It very well might. show less

Delicious British farce by one of the masters of the genre. I think Frayn is probably one of those writers you either thoroughly love or thoroughly can't take -- I've loved everything by him that I've read (or seen). As other reviewers have already pointed out, Skios reads like the screenplay it most likely is destined to become. Very funny and enjoyable if you don't mind suspending all your disbelief and just going with the flow. I had fun with this one.

Oliver Fox is one of those feckless young men who makes his way through life responding to the situation as it appears. He lets things shape themselves before and around him, responds with charm, and stays with it until it falls apart or the next situation begins to shape up.

He has been kicked out by his sugar momma Annuka once again. But he's also connected with lovely young thing Georgia, exchanged text messages and is flying to a lovely Greek island so they can spend a few nights together away from her boyfriend. At the same time, super-competent Nikki looks over the last-minute arrangements for the annual gathering hosted by the Fred Toppler Foundation. It primarily exists as a way for the former exotic dancer, the widowed Mrs. Fred show more Toppler, to pay homage to the source of her wealth with a world-class meeeting of minds from finance, academics, government and the like. The speaker every year is dull as dishwater, so Nikki has found the perfect antidote -- Dr. Norman Wilfred. He travels the world giving talks about how smart he is. As long as he keeps his speech nearby, he can weather any discomfort. Until now.

Fox takes Wilfred's place at the airport when Nikki waits to meet the speaker she hasn't seen before; she's only talked to his PA for weeks. Then Georgie arrives a day early. People keep mistaking Fox and Wilfred for each other in true screwball comedy situations. Frayn is terrific at making these outlandish events seem semi-plausible. Along the way, he throws in a few light zingers about the nature of foundations, the speakers who make their reputations at them and how similar parlor tricks can look like deep thoughts. Or is that last one the other way round?

Without revealing the story's climax, Frayn sets up a meringue-light story, but readers may feel burned at the end. Readers who enjoy complete shifts in story and tone may thrill to the Over the Top action but it is a huge change to overcome. Until then, however, the confection is delightful because when on top of his game, Frayn is adept at making skewing commentary. show less

Dr. Norman Wilfred, an expert in something called “the scientific organization of science”, is traveling from London to the Greek island of Skios to present a keynote address at the Fred Toppler Foundation. Oliver Fox, a charming but shiftless young man, is also traveling to Skios with the twin goals of escaping his irate girlfriend and passing a week with a beautiful woman he has spent all of five minutes talking to in a bar and who is also trying to deceive her current boyfriend. When Nikki Hook, the personal assistant to the head of the Foundation and the best friend of Fox’s prospective companion, goes to the airport to pick up Wilfred, she somehow ends up taking Fox instead, who then decides to assume Wilfred’s identity and show more give the lecture. Meanwhile, Wilfred ends up at the rented villa with both Fox’s new fling and his old girlfriend, who has herself come from London to exact revenge on Fox. Ultimately, all parties converge at the Foundation on the evening of the keynote speech, aided by Stavros and Spiros, two local cabdrivers who make frequent and timely appearances throughout the story.

Hopefully, this synopsis makes it clear that Skios is a farce involving mistaken identities, hidden motives, and social climbing. (Indeed, the dust jacket of the book leaves nothing to chance in that regard, calling the tale a “spiraling farce” written by the “great master of farce”.) The problem is that, while in no way unpleasant, there was really nothing of substance to hold the reader’s attention throughout the book. In fact, I think the real problem is that a full-length novel is not really the best format for delivering material of this sort. Of course, Frayn is also a renowned playwright (Copenhagen, Noises Off) and it seems to me that the farcical nature of this tale—with its many implausible events and unlikely coincidences—is much better suited to the theater, where over a briskly paced, two-hour period the audience would not be given much of a chance to dwell on the implications of what they were seeing. In a book read over a few days, however, it is impossible not to think of questions (e.g., Why didn’t Nikki simply look at Oliver’s passport when she had it in her possession?, Why didn’t any guests at the Foundation look up Wilfred’s credentials on the internet and realize that Fox was not their man?) that the author would prefer be left unasked.

Unfortunately, then, Skios is not a book I can recommend without considerable hesitation. The story is certainly entertaining in parts and the author has done a nice job crafting the plot so that there are no apparent inconsistencies in the confusions and myriad near-misses that occur in virtually every chapter. Still, the characters are little more than cartoons with motives so thinly veiled and predictable that their only apparent purpose is to move the tale forward at a mad-cap pace. Further, I found the ending to be a huge disappointment, which is really saying something for a novel in which nothing of consequence happens in the first place. So, this book could be a suitable addition to someone's “To Be Read at the Beach While Sipping a Frosty, Fermented Beverage” list, but it is hard to imagine that it will have a much wider appeal than that. show less

The Toppler Foundation, headquartered on the beautiful Greek island of Skios, is holding its annual Great European House Party, where guests (mostly American) travel great distances to hear lectures and attend workshops on various fabulous subjects related to European culture. Dr. Norman Wilfred, this year’s guest of honor, plans to give the event’s culminating lecture on science management, his area of expertise. However, when the charming and sloppily handsome Oliver Fox makes a spur of the moment decision to steal Dr. Wilfred’s identity, a chain reaction of increasingly goofy events is set into motion.

This is a well-done, off-the-wall farce that effectively lampoons pretentious, shallow, rich folks with a bit too much time on show more their hands and the strange culture industry that the Toppler Foundation represents. Oliver’s ability to pull off his disguise points to the tendency for people to respond to charm over substance with disastrous effect. Not having much experience with this type of novel, I have little to compare it too, but I find it difficult to point out any flaws. It’s very funny, fast-paced, full of twists, and has a satisfying ending that I was not quite expecting. Although it may not be my thing, it’s very high quality writing, and I recommend it. show less